1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the technical field of a vehicle control apparatus that controls a vehicle that is provided with, for example, EPS (Electric controlled Power Steering), VGRS (Variable Gear Ratio Steering), ARS (Active Rear Steering), or SBW (Steer By Wire) or the like, and configured to be able to realize a function that maintains a travel path of the vehicle on a target travel path, such as LKA (Lane Keeping Assist) or the like, using these functions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-160998 (JP-A-2007-160998), for example, describes one such apparatus that takes into account an operation amount of a steering wheel by a driver while lane keeping assist is being performed. With the steering control apparatus described in JP-A-2007-160998, when the driver operates (i.e., turns) the steering wheel while lane keeping assist is being performed, interference between the steering wheel operation and steering control can be appropriately prevented by reducing the control amount related to steering control according to that operation amount.
Also, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-030612 (JP-A-2007-030612) describes a power steering apparatus that improves the steering feel by increasing a damping control amount of EPS when the driver steers while lane keeping assist is being performed.
According to the related art in each of the publications described above, when there is steering input by the driver while lane keeping assist is being performed, it is possible to prevent steering control related to lane keeping assist from interfering with steering control according to a steering input by the driver. However, because the steering control amount itself that is used to perform lane keeping assist is corrected in an attempt to realize a steering intention of the driver, there is a significant decrease in lane keeping assist convergence as a result. Therefore, if the vehicle departs from the target running path due to a disturbance caused by a crosswind or a road gradient during such control, it is not easy to return the vehicle to the target running path. That is, the related art has a technical problem in which the control quality of lane keeping assist, which is critical, declines due to the fact that a steering intention of the driver is unable to be reflected without reducing the convergence of lane keeping assist.